THE NEW YORKER THE CUR.R.ENT CINEMA Seven Days' Rest Crime and Marriage , - ' ....... "'... \. " .......- ",Ii r - \''.: ' 1 1 1 '1 1 1 "/;/1"1' ,II, - - 0 '" 'I , Ii ff!I/II.'... I t\ Iii! I , Ild,...i " , -::., I ... '..' I'" IIr:WR;, 1" I 1/11. Jllf .' \ I. " .. r ,i .!1Ï\/ '1' ,iJj ,jIlI I 'IU l lljlll \ " ... .' I /-4 'Ii v ' I '//1'1 iii - - .. ) ... ..- ,/Ir ll - ""-:. I" \ - _ '.';.;...... ' .. I _ -' . - --':" .-", -- f ,pr .... '-- ... t _, =,-,. _ ----- - r' /\\' L >, ... .. c-' I\\\\ - ' þÞ '\ "(. ,'ô., ,.. ," ... ,'''':;:''' "''-'' ..... .. , ..... .. ...... Aw I " . T HE movie industry is worn out again. It has produced two or three good pictures lately, and the result is only what you'd expect. Not that it isn't making a brave little pretence of keeping up. There is a lot of new pic- tures this week, quite a number of big names- as they are supposed to be by people in the business -and lookIng b a c k, summonIng up remem- brance of things past, as it were, I even find a bit here and a snack there of talent made manifest. One bit, for instance, would be Eric von Stroheim as the blackmailer, with a smirk and a touch of the sadistic, In "Friends and Lovers." He is killed, however, so early in the picture, and the rest of it, including all the palaver- ing by Lily Damita and Adolphe Men- jou, is so simply wearisome and distress- ing that the picture itself is merely another trial to be faced by those who get cornered at it. Another bit would be the burlesque gangster wedding- nuptials contrived by the royalty of the underworld to knock the eye out of the public, to surpass even the funerals for which this phase of the social order is so celebrated-in "Bad Company." This picture, however, aside from the problem presented in featuring Miss Helen Twelvetrees, has apparently been through such an unduly gruelling experience-at the hands of the cen- sors, or of a director with a tempo- rary amnesia, perhaps-that it is almost unintelligible at times. For a snack of humor I am inclined to prefer above all other offerings thrown out this past week that momentary flicker of an earthy, wicked old peasant woman- a lady not mentioned on the program -in "Terra Madre," but the rest of that, too, is just for the homesick Latins. P URSUING this genial strain of mine, I might say that I was some- what more pleased with "The Ruling Voice" than many I have chanced to meet. F or this spasm of enthusiasm on my part I must concede that I haven't a very sound reason. It's a silly, senti- mental story about a great underworld baron whose weak spot is his love of his daughter. Walter Huston plays the part, and though he is always more clearly a human being on the screen than most of his colleagues, he can't do much in this sonata pathétique except work up a St. Bernard sort of wistful- ness on occasion. My pleasure in the picture-as far as that pleasure went, anyhow-lay in the somewhat subdued quali- ty it had. A picture of gunmen and racketeers, it was a smooth, polite affair, and there was something extraneously comic, perhaps, in the notion I had that the meeting of the under- world leaders somewhat approximated in its suavity a meeting of the house committee of the Union League. T HERE may be another kind of extraneous interest to be found in "The Speckled Band," for the Sherlock Holmes in the piece is played by that young Raymond Massey who is now doing Hamlet on the stage in town. With a certain suggestion of the young Lincoln, after a mean day at the rail- splitting, Mr. Massey is a worn and haggard Holn1es, one who has the talent, evidently, for solving other peo- ple's problems, but not his own. The picture is nothing at all, especially as you probably read the Conan Doyle story years ago and recall the solution of the mystery at the start. M ISS RUTH CHATTERTON is out again. "Once a Lady" teaches us ho " disastrous it is for lovely R us- sians to marry genteel Englishmen, for it means that they must spend some years with their in-laws, and Slavs are hard on Anglican in-laws. Miss Chat- terton, as Anna Keremazoff, finally bolts to Paris and is there years later when the daughter she had to leave behind grows up and goes a bit berserk too. She ìs not only there but is cov- ered with diamonds, for which-ah, God! -she has to pay, and is quite able to assist her child and manage the proper marriage for her . We fear that there is no gaiety here to enliven us. N OR is there in "Compromise," with Rose Hohart, anything to indicate that the movies have strained themselves. I t is their week of rest, and we had best simply sit aside and wait for better things to come when they are well and strong again, perhaps even inspired. - J. C. M. 81 James B. Pond presents for a limited engagement CORNELIA OTIS SKINNER offering her new idea in Theatre entertainment THE WIVES of HENRY VIII Direct from st. James Theatre, London "The idea is a happy one, and it was admirably carrieù."-LOz.,iDON TIMES. AVON THEATRE--Every Eve. at 8:50 'V. 43rd St. Mats. Thurs. & Sat. COUNSELLOR- AT-LAW Newest Play by ELMER RICE with Paul Muni PLYMOUTH Theatre, W. 45th st. Eves. 8:30 Nights $1 to $3. Thurs. & Sat. Mats. $1 to $2.50 THE LEFT BANK by Elmer Rice "First American play of the season of any sound Quality; a play real in its character, real in its dialogue, and consistently intel- ligent in its approach to its subject matter." -George Jean Nathan, Judge LITTLE Theatre, \V. 44th St. Tel. LA-4-6620 Eves. 8 :50 $1 to 3. matinees 2 :40 \Ved. Mat. $I, $1.50, $2. Sat. Mat $1 to $2.50 JOHN GOLDEN presents RACHEL CROTHERS' NEWEST COMEDY AUGHT WET John Golden Thea., \V. 58 St. Cir. 7-5678 Matinees Wed. & Sat. 2 :30 Evgs.: Best Seats $1 to $3 at Box Office r :.: REPUBll :; T, I I EVERY . OHDAY . , For The Tired Business Man j, '. and The Girl Friend! .,,"1"1 "Mlle. SPROUTS From BRUSSELS" i -' ' MATINEE DAILY! For Res. Phone Special Box-office WISCONSIN 7-1800 Guthrie McClintic presents Francine Larritnore in Brief Moment by s. N. Behrman Belasco Theatre LENORE L Ie:: in "THE SOCIAL REGISTER" with SIDNEY BLACKMER A new play by John Emerson and Anita Loos FULTON Theatre, 46th St. 'W. of B'way. Mats. 'Wed. & Sat. (9 SItt 'T411 /f!"re Americonr "lfitte tht'Bt'J't COI1tinenlo7 I1clurt'f A ßIToFBERLlN"'NEWYORK IIIHRE HOHEIT BEFIEHL TII ("Her Highness Commands") ..4 Sparkling ÇGERiUAN' Film Operetta with Willy Fritsch-Kaethe yon Nagy Continuous 12 :30 to 11 :30 P. lVI. Popular Prices.